☀️A Sun That Really Pulls Its Weight
Friday, January 26 - 2024 Week 4
Good morning, Marysville. Strap in. Let’s do this.
☀️More and MORE Dysphoria
Here’s a recent headline from Ray Lewis at KOMO News: “Washington State saw 145% jump in gender dysphoria diagnoses from 2018-22, report shows.”
Thankfully our modern dictionaries are keeping up. So The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition defines “gender dysphoria” as “a persistent unease with having the physical characteristics of one's gender, accompanied by strong identification with the opposite gender and a desire to live as or to become a member of the opposite gender.”
Washington State is “winning” the race to make more young people more miserable.
How is this happening? Among other things our public schools are teaching it.
I’m reminded of February 2019 when The Marysville Globe ran an article with the headline: “Teaching of gender identity evolving in Marysville schools.” Of course, that’s about when the Definitive Healthcare study started collecting their stats. Though The Globe stopped spinning new stories a couple years ago, the article is still available in the online archives.
That article provoked my first letter to the editor (which is also still available). It was a tongue-in-cheek revision, a story to laugh at, if only saner heads could lead classrooms. The version for The Globe had to be trimmed to fit word count limits, but I’m going to repost the full parody below (and, you know, as a parody, it does make more sense after reading the original). It happens to include one of my best to-date original memes.
-----BEGIN PARODY, HA!-----
Down the hall from the 6th Grade Health class the Shop teacher has been dealing with a similar but more serious confusion. It is a growing problem throughout the nation and parents have been grilling school boards because the nuts and bolts are going through an identification meltdown.
In Marysville there has been little to no opposition to encouraging the nuts to bolt and the bolts to be nuts. School leaders say that the lack of opposition is primarily due to the fact that many of the parents who’ve been notified about the gender identity confusion have simply been too busy searching for the largest black permanent marker they can find with which to vote NO on the next Levy proposal leaving little time to worry about the nuts and bolts.
Flynn Miscall, director of putting things together, said that the district has adopted the free curriculum endorsed by the Official Office of Preposterous Superintendent Ideas (OOPSI) because, “I mean, it was free.”
Miscall also said, “It’s confusing for nuts, and people referring to them as nuts, especially if they don’t feel nuts, even if they are actually nuts.”
Cindi Wileslip, vice principal of fasteners and building stuff, said, “Knowledge is a priority” for students and parents. “But we’re just teachers. Who are we to share knowledge about the identity of nuts and bolts?” She also added, “We’d like parents to take the lead in these conversations, except when they want to identify nuts as nuts. That is right out.”
Wileslip added that the Washington State Legislature is looking to amend their pioneering Tape-Everything Act of 2012. Lawmakers and education professionals have been requiring the use of Washi Tape, whether single colored or patterned, as a replacement for bolting things. None of the State’s policy makers were available for comment due to a recent Consistency Mandate which prohibits all employees from plugging in their cell phones to charge.
In an unanticipated twist, the problem of nut-bolt identity has spread to many of Marysville’s school parking lots where the wheels are actually falling off the educational system, as well as the cars.
OOPSI Standards
Beginning in Kindergarten, students will be taught about the many ways to use glue. There are many.
Third-graders will be introduced to nut-bolt identity. These children will be taught that they can choose whatever attachment system they prefer, as long as whatever they prefer is not using nuts and bolts. Don’t even try to confuse them with washers.
Fourth-graders will be expected to “define threaded fasteners and external male threads.” They will be told that this is all very screwy.
High school students will critically “evaluate how culture, media, society, and other people such as hardware store employees have abandoned the harmful expectations of sense and logic.”
In case the above seems alarmist, it’s okay, because all classes will be canceled going forward. No one can get into the classrooms because identity confusion has also developed among the door locks and keys.
-----THE END OF PARODY, HAHA!-----
Also last week, doctors (so-called) at Seattle Children’s Hospital called the failure to provide gender-altering procedures a sort of “emotional abuse,” likely to lead to more depression.
But in WA we have no bans on Gender Affirming Care (GAC), and we still have a 145% increase in gender dysphoria, not in gender gratitude and peace. Our crack medical teams and psychologists and education professionals are affirming irreversible damage. Transphobia is not the problem. Truth and life, gender and generations (literally!) are at stake. To deny that is nuts.
☀️A Tour of Gravitics
[The following article is by Ben Smith, a frequent contributor to the Sun.]
The other day this month of January, Anno Domini 2024, the space sector startup, Gravitics, opened up its facility to the largest group of visitors yet hosted at the brand-spanking-new manufacturing and assembly plant in the industrial zone in northern Marysville.
Gravitics designs, tests, and builds 4-, 6- and 8-meter diameter space capsules for use as new space station sections, lunar surface modules, orbital test stations, etc. There's a wide open market space out there, and this local company is working to provide the products to help make the new Space Race a reality, for pleasure, profit, and protection. They're even able to build hydrogen fuel tanks, if your future Tesla model or something needs one to fill up from. The Jetsons could certainly use one.
The visiting group from a variety of backgrounds was large enough that with the addition of available employees, 54 souls were able to stand inside the 8-meter-class Star Max space module mock-up.
There certainly was room for perhaps twice that number of mankind, with plenty of elbow room. A single Star Max will be the largest volume standalone spacecraft yet—it has about half of the total volume of the current space station in Earth orbit, the ISS. That is the most humanity that has ever been squeezed into a space capsule before, as far as anyone knows at publishing time. You may spot some familiar faces in the photos, from two members of the Marysville City Council to a couple Marysville city government employees, and other Marysville stakeholders.
The company is making strides lately, including securing its first contract with the Space Force, part of the Space WERX program. Eighteen companies won contracts out of over 300 competitors; Gravitics is one of two others based in WA State. Part of this contract includes conducting rocket motor tests and space debris impact resistance tests (firing a cannon at armor panels) on the way to bigger and better things.
A surge of hiring is expected at the company of currently approximately 40 employees, as more contracts come in and the efforts to replace the International Space Station reach fever pitch. There is also a race to explore and prospect for water to supply bases and rocket fuel, as well as to mine interesting minerals on the Moon. (Moon gem jewelry for your spouse or fiancé on an upcoming Valentine's Day, anyone? It will probably be all the rage in a few years.)
I for one am looking forward to seeing rows of various space modules and fuel tanks under construction at the plant in the future. WA State is one of the main centers of the new Space Race, with Gravitics a part of that alongside new or longstanding ventures such as Starlink/SpaceX, Kuiper/Amazon, Firefly/Spaceflight, Blue Origin, Vulcan, Boeing, Radian and more.
Check out the company website when you get a chance: gravitics.com
☀️Around Town
There is a Special Election Ballot for voters to “decide…whether to continue paying a 0.2% sales and use tax…to preserve, maintain and expand the City’s transportation infrastructure.” See more about the Transportation Benefit District here.
KING 5 News reported this week that “Washington has 4th-most expensive weekly average grocery bill in US.” Come on WA, we’re almost on the medals platform!
Ever wanted to be an actor in a “mock disaster”? Providence is shining on you! The Everett Post announced a call for “volunteer disaster survivor actor(s)” at Evergreen State College on February 9. Of note: “Professional moulage artiest will apply makeup and prosthetics to the volunteers in an effort to simulate the injuries.” Read more about the opportunity here.
And a word of encouragement: Maybe you heard that most of the staff of Sports Illustrated were laid off last week. Just a few days ago the LA Times announced 115 layoffs in their newsroom. Rest assured that if the Marysville Sun shuts down it won’t be for any of the same reasons. 🤣
☀️Coming Events
State of the City with Mayor Jon Nehring - Wednesday, January 31, 6:30pm. See the event page for more info.
Marysville Presents “You’re Out!” (ha, that’s just our editorial alternative title) - Tuesday, February 6, 6:30pm. See the city event page for more info and registration.
☀️Friday Fun
When you take one for the team, but at least they know it. (seen here)
The Marysville Sun provides news and perspective—with a little bit of fun—for Marysville's stakeholders about what's at stake.
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